1001 Inventions Film Wins Gold Award at Cannes

Published Date:

14 October 2010

Gold Award for Best Education Film

The record-breaking 1001 Inventions movie has received another high-profile award at a glitzy ceremony on the French Riviera. At the inaugural Cannes Corporate Media Awards, ‘Library of Secrets’, starring Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley, received the Gold Award for Best Education Film. On the 14th of October 2010, the producers were presented with a “Golden Dolphin” which marks the 21st major award for the unique and ground-breaking educational film that has been viewed more than 6 million times online.

‘1001 Inventions and The Library of Secrets’ was produced by the Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation (FSTC) and The Edge Picture Company as an introductory film for the 1001 Inventions exhibition that launched at London’s Science Museum in January 2010 and at Istanbul’s Sultan Ahmet Square in August 2010. So far the exhibition has attracted more than 800,000 visitors and was the most popular tourist attraction in Turkey during its seven week residency in the country’s historic capital.

Receiving the Gold Award for Best Education Film on behalf of 1001 Inventions,
Alan Deakins (Film Director) and Phil Blundell (Managing Director of the Edge Picture Company)

Professor Salim Al-Hassani, Chairman of 1001 Inventions, commented: “I am immensely grateful to all the people who have worked on this film and brought to life an underappreciated period in the history of science and technology. The awards we have received are testament to the talent, dedication and commitment of those involved in the production both on-screen and off-screen. Our work demonstrates the shared heritage of humanity and it’s a very effective way of inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and technology. We have just completed our exhibition’s residency in Turkey and this is a truly magnificent gift at the end of what has been our most successful run to date. We’re now looking forward to bringing our ground-breaking exhibition and award-winning film to the United States where we hope to make even more of an impact than we have achieved in Europe.”

The movie ‘1001 Inventions and The Library of Secrets’ is a 13-minute film starring Sir Ben Kinglsey as the 13th century master engineer Al-Jazari, who takes a group of modern school children on a journey of enlightenment through the erroneously-named “Dark Ages” of civilisation, and demonstrates how men and women of many different faiths, living within Muslim civilisation, made exceptional advances in science and technology and paved the way for the European Renaissance. The film has won major awards at the New York Festival, the US International Film Festival (Los Angeles), the Hamburg International Film Festival (Germany) and the IVCA (London).